Spinal cord injury suicide

PURPOSE: Spinal cord injury (SCI) peer mentors are individuals who, through their lived experiences, offer emotional support and empathetic understanding to others living with SCI to foster positive health, independence, and well-being. This study explored SCI peer mentors' perceptions of their roles and experiences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six paid or volunteer peer mentors participated in semi-structured interviews. We first explored the data using thematic narrative analysis to identify patterns, themes, and narrative types...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to examine whether individuals with a SCI would have considered Medical-Assistance-in-Dying (MAiD) following their SCI and whether these individuals felt they would have been able to make an informed decision about this potentially permanent option early in their experience. SETTING: Manitoba, Canada. METHODS: Participants with varying neurological levels of SCI and classification were included...

Current guidelines for patients experiencing a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often focus on conservative care and observation. However, mTBI may increase the risk of severe novel psychiatric disorders (NPDs) within 180 days, and long-term management of mTBI should include psychiatric evaluation in patient populations. Retrospective cohort analysis was conducted using 8 years of the Nationwide Readmission Database. All individuals who were admitted for concussion and were readmitted within 180 days were queried...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study OBJECTIVES: To determine the causes of death in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) admitted to the Spinal Cord Unit (SCU) of the University Hospital Motol from 2004 to 2018. SETTING: University Hospital Motol, Prague METHODS: From a cohort of people admitted to the SCU between 2004 and 2018, all deaths were identified based on the database of health insurance companies. The causes of death (ICD-10) were obtained from the Institute of Health Information and Statistics...

BACKGROUND: Trauma is a significant cause of death and impairment. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) differentiates the severity of trauma and is the basis for different trauma scores and prediction models. While the majority of patients do not survive injuries which are coded with an AIS 6, there are several patients with a severe high cervical spinal cord injury that could be discharged from hospital despite the prognosis of trauma scores. We estimate that the trauma scores and prediction models miscalculate these injuries...

We describe a pre-clinical spinal cord motor neuron injury model that is minimal invasive, reproducible, focal and easily applied to small rodents. Retrograde axonal transport of a pro-apoptotic phosphatidylinosotol 3'-kinase inhibitor, wortmannin, via the sciatic nerve results in loss of ipsilateral lumbar motor neurons proportional to the level of drug administered. Motor neuron loss was detected by choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunostaining and with a transgenic thy1-eGFP marker. The short half-life of wortmannin generates minimal wound spread, and wortmannin does not affect axon transport, as determined by co-injection of a pseudorabies virus tracer...

The forensic museum specimen presented in this paper is the oldest specimen in the collection of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Belgrade. It comprises a jar containing six cervical vertebras connected to a small amount of dry connective tissue. During the autopsy, the cervical part of the spine was completely opened posteriorly: the base of the odontoid process of the axis was crushed, but the transverse and posterior longitudinal ligaments and the spinal cord were intact. Attached to the specimen, there is a partly cored piece of lead which looks like a severely deformed handgun projectile, approximately 12 mm in diameter...

INTRODUCTION: Suicide is a global problem and accurate assessment of risk for self-harm is critical. Even morally principled clinicians can manifest bias when assessing self-harm in patients with physical disabilities such as spinal cord injury (SCI). Assessment of self-harm is an obligation for health care clinicians and overestimating or underestimating risk may undermine a patient's trust in their care, possibly leading to less engagement, increased apathy about having an interest in living, and less adherence to healthy treatment options...

Approximately 17,730 new spinal cord injuries (SCIs) occur per year in the United States. Effective rehabilitation and modern reproductive technology may increase the number of these patients considering pregnancy. Obstetrician-gynecologists and other obstetric care professionals who care for such patients should be familiar with problems related to SCIs that may occur throughout pregnancy and during the postpartum period. Autonomic dysreflexia (sometimes called autonomic hyperreflexia) is the most serious medical complication that occurs in women with SCIs and is found in 85% of patients with lesions at or above T6 level...

Approximately 17,730 new spinal cord injuries (SCIs) occur per year in the United States. Effective rehabilitation and modern reproductive technology may increase the number of these patients considering pregnancy. Obstetrician-gynecologists and other obstetric care professionals who care for such patients should be familiar with problems related to SCIs that may occur throughout pregnancy and during the postpartum period. Autonomic dysreflexia (sometimes called autonomic hyperreflexia) is the most serious medical complication that occurs in women with SCIs and is found in 85% of patients with lesions at or above T6 level...

Astrocytes become reactive in response to spinal cord injury (SCI) and ultimately form a histologically apparent glial scar at the lesion site. It is controversial whether astrocytic scar is detrimental or beneficial to the axonal regeneration and SCI repair. Therefore, much effort has focused on understanding the functions of reactive astrocytes. Here, we used a lentivirus-mediated herpes simplex thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (HSVtk/GCV) system to selectively kill scar-forming reactive proliferating astrocytes...

INTRODUCTION: Studies published in other countries indicate that 1.6-3% of spinal cord injuries are acquired due to suicide attempt, the majority being produced by precipitation in patients with previous psychiatric disorders. AIMS: To determine the frequency of attempted suicide as a cause of spinal cord injuries in a neurorehabilitation hospital and to describe the characteristics of these patients in psychiatric terms and functional disability. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective study in which all patients with spinal cord injuries due to suicide attempt in a period of 15 years in a neurorehabilitation hospital were reviewed...

Tumorigenesis is an important problem that needs to be addressed in the field of human stem/progenitor cell transplantation for the treatment of subacute spinal cord injury (SCI). When certain "tumorigenic" cell lines are transplanted into the spinal cord of SCI mice model, there is initial improvement of motor function, followed by abrupt deterioration secondary to the effect of tumor growth. A significant proportion of the transplanted cells remains undifferentiated after transplantation and is thought to increase the risk of tumorigenesis...

Recent research indicates a heightened risk of suicide in this population, a concern given that suicide may be more accepted for those with physical disabilities than for those without such disabilities. The relationship between physical disability and suicide has begun to be examined within empirically supported frameworks of suicide and indicates that interpersonal factors (e.g. perceived burdensomeness) and pain are mechanisms contributing to this heightened risk of suicide. The suicide rate after acquiring a physical disability, such as a spinal cord injury, and the greater odds of suicide after reporting having a disability further support the association between physical disability and suicide...

BACKGROUND: Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a widely accepted technique to treat local infectious wounds of the skin, subcutaneous tissue, fascia, or muscle. Recently, several reports describing the efficacy of NPWT for various types of fistulas and anastomotic leaks have been published. We herein describe a patient with an open abdominal wound due to colonic anastomotic leakage and diffuse peritonitis, in whom abdominal vacuum sealing (AVS) as a modified NPWT was useful for the management of this complex wound...

Introduction: Paralysis from a spinal cord injury (SCI) increases risk of psychological problems including suicide attempts, substance use disorder, negative emotions (e.g., anger), depression, anxiety, ASD/PTSD. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy® (DBT®) has been shown to be effective for treating similar psychological symptoms in non-SCI patient populations. The current study explored for the first time, the feasibility and clinical potential of using Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) enhanced DBT® Mindfulness skills training to help reduce psychological symptoms (negative emotions and anxiety, ASD/PTSD) of two patients with SCI...

BACKGROUND: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition mainly deriving from a traumatic damage of the spinal cord (SC). Immune cells and endogenous SC-neural stem cells (SC-NSCs) play a critical role in wound healing processes, although both are ineffective to completely restore tissue functioning. The role of SC-NSCs in SCI and, in particular, whether such cells can interplay with the immune response are poorly investigated issues, although mechanisms governing such interactions might open new avenues to develop novel therapeutic approaches...

BACKGROUND: Spine injury epidemiology in Japan has not been studied since the 1990s when its incidence was 39.4-40.2 per million and the major cause of injury was motor vehicle crashes. We elucidate the current epidemiological state of spinal injury and spinal injury patients in Japan for the clinicians and public health prevention programs. METHODS: Spine injury patients were retrospectively selected from the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB) from 2004 to 2013 for all ages and all spinal injuries...